


Swish

by LadyAmphy



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Spoilers for Campaign 2 Episode 26
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-24 09:04:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15627354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAmphy/pseuds/LadyAmphy
Summary: It started as an accident, watching the Tiefling tails.





	Swish

It started as an accident, watching the Tiefling tails. It was calming, hypnotic, seeing them swish back and forth in the firelight. And it then it just became a habit, counting the swishes when ever he could. A ritual he couldn’t break nor did he want to. Keeping him grounded to this reality.

And it was how he got to know them, without their knowledge, or so he hoped.

Jester’s emotions were much more pronounced than Molly’s. Everything she did was with a joyous innocence. Tail making big movements no matter what mood she was in. Poking, tickling, waving it in front of the rest of the parties faces when she was bored and wanted to play. Though he could tell when she was having a bad day when her tail would seek out those around her, little touches, making sure they were still real to her. Even when she was angry to heal them, her tail would touch the chest of the one she was healing as reassurance for scaring her. That they weren’t going to abandon her to. Often he would catch her linking her tail with Molly’s when at a bar on the really bad days.

Molly on the other hand was a tease. Lazy flicks back and forth when gathering information from the bar owners, whatever gender or species. If he was truely interested, a light touch to their arm would be all that was needed to let him know that Molly may not be back for quite a while. His tail was easier to count the swishes based on who in the party he was talking to, and his level of dealing with their bullshit. With most of the Party it would swish several times when going up to talk to them. He never counted how many it was for him, content to live in the knowledge that he was the same as the rest of the Party.  
If Molly was in a mood his tail had a nervous tick. Three small Swishes to the right, Two Left. Repeat. But those days were few a far between.

And then everything changed. 

When the others were taken, Molly’s nervous tick was a constant presence.

Three small Swishes to the right, Two Left. Repeat. Everyday.

 

And then Molly Fell....

Three small Swishes to the right, Two Left.

Three small Swishes to the right

....Two Left. 

One small Swishes to the right

Stillness. 

And his world Shattered. His tie to the current reality, what was keeping him focused was gone. And he would never know what Molly really thought of him. Not that he was going to look at the tail to find out

The whole rescue mission he was running on Autopilot and self preservation. 

And all the time counting

One Two Three Right....

Find Jester....

One Two Left....

 

But even finding Jester couldn’t bring him out of his mental prison.

Until one day it did. 

Jester had a new Tick. 

Three small Swishes to the right, Two Left. Repeat.

And his world was righted.

**Author's Note:**

> For The CatPile
> 
> I started this well before the events of this most recent arc. My friends were discussing how Tieflings reminded them of cats, and I wondered how Caleb would react to seeing the tails twitch.  
> And how he didn’t know what Molly’s tail did, because he was afraid of what it meant.
> 
> But I like how I changed it.


End file.
